Study ranks Arizona community colleges 30th in US

PHOENIX – Attending a four-year college can be a burden on your wallet with countless tuition fees and costs.

However, attending community college can help ease the financial pressure by saving you almost three times as much of the cost to attend a university. It can also be a great way to jump start your academic career out of high school.

But according to a study by WalletHub, the state of Arizona ranks 30th in America when it comes to participation and GPA in community colleges.

While not all states have accessible community colleges to attend, some are making it easier for their students to get to campus by offering residents free rides to their local junior college.

New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee are a few of the states that have joined the program to help increase participation on campus.

Although junior colleges offer cheaper education, not all states offer the same quality of learning.

The study ranked the best and worst community college systems state-by-state. The rankings were based on the number of students on campus and the weighted GPA’s.

Washington, South Dakota, and Minnesota round out the top three while Pennsylvania ranks last on the list of states with the best community colleges.

The rankings only listed states that had at least two community colleges present.

In a separate survey conducted by WalletHub, Cochise County Community College District was ranked the 69th-best community college in America. Mesa Community College checks in at 278 and GateWay Community College is right behind at 280.